THE STORK WHO LOST A FEATHER
Theres an old story about a stork who lost his wing, well it wasn't his wing really, just one of his feathers. But it wasn't just any feather, it was his first flight feather. It had sprung up when he was still a hatchling, confined to the massive stork nest on top of a chimney of an abandoned house.
So the story goes, he's out one day looking for a snack. Flying high over the green pastures. He had only been flying for about eight weeks. And he's out looking for a snack, maybe a field rat, or a fish in the stream. So he's going along and these great big gray cloulds start moving in out if the East. And he's thinking to him self, those are some big cloulds and look at how fast their moving. He looks down and sees a patch of grass where he might find a field rat. So he swoops down to take a look, and on his way down a great big gust of wind hits him. Spins him about and instead of landing softly on the grass he ends up upside down in a willow tree.
He's hanging there in the willow tree, his head is spinning. Thinking to himself, what happened. So, he gets himself untangled and glides down to the grown under the willow tree. The grass is damp there, you see there was a little sprig of a stream there on the edge of a field.
He looks up, and the sun is beaming down on him, making the water on the grass shine like a thousand little stars set upon green emeralds. But he also sees those great big gray cloulds coming in and he reasons and thinks to himself, thats where that bloody big gust of wind must have came from. And it done knocked me around and into the willow tree. Well, its done and all in all no harm done. And he checks himself over, trying out all his muscles. Stretchen his legs, bending his neck, going through his tail feathers and then finally one by one combing through his wing feathers. And he's finished his left wing and its all in order and then about halfway through his right wing he sees it. Well, its more that he doesn’t see it. Theres a gap, about the size of a large acorn between two remiges. (Remiges are wing festhers and tail feathers are called rectrices.) He had lost his lucky feather.
The stork cried, "Oh I've lost my lucky feather. Oh where has it gone to? I must get it back." And he begain to look all around. He checked the ground by the tree he looked up in the tree, he walked out into the field where he had been assaulted by the gust of wind. In desperation he went back to the willow tree and looked again, and he followed the sprig that led to the stream. And as we walked along he saw it. His lucky feather. It was floating on the edge of the water, held in place by a little sprig of grass. Just as he reached out to get it, the wind blew again and pushed the feather off and down the stream it went.
The stork followed the stream keeping is eye trained on his lucky feather. Trying desperately to figure out how to retrieve it. Till at last the stream meet a creek and his lucky feather sailed off out of sight and out of reach.
